Emma's Endeavor
by TLOSpyrogirl
Summary: When Emma arrives on Pinata Island, she's going to have to put her strength to the test. Pitted against the worst the island has to offer, it's not going to be easy going. What will Emma learn about herself while she raises a garden from the ashes?
1. Arrival

**A/N:**

**The cover for this story WAS NOT MADE BY ME. It was labeled as 'Free to Use or Share' under Google Advanced Image Search, so I am not infringing the copyright of the person who took the photograph. Again, THE COVER WAS NOT MADE BY ME AND DOES NOT BELONG TO ME.**

**Ah, plot bunnies—excuse me, plot bunnycombs. We all know and hate them. *_* Ah, no matter.**

**No, I will not be bothered to put the... er, squiggly thing over the N in pinata, no, I don't have a set plot or anything, and no, I probably will never update. Now, enough of my ramblings. Enjoy.**

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><p><em>Dedicated to all pinatas<br>You live and die for the entertainment of others_

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><p>I sighed and leaned over the edge of the boat, staring into the crystal blue water below. Gentle waves lapped at the boat, rocking it slightly. A gust of wind blew over the ocean, whipping my already frazzled hair into even greater disarray, but I didn't care that much. <em>Hair <em>was the last thing on my mind.

The boat I was on might better be described as a ship. There was the deck, which I was on now, and the lower chambers, where all of the ship's occupants slept and ate. There was also a storage room, but I had no storage, so I hadn't seen it. The ship itself was named the _S.S Pinata _or something along those lines.

The occupants in the ship weren't particularly interesting. There were about three crew members, including the captain. Then there was an adult female who wasn't interested in talking to anybody, along with a boy that looked to be around my age, although he seemed to be timid and didn't speak to me. And then, there was me.

_How did I wind up in this mess? _I thought to myself. Pinata Island, where you raise pinatas and send them to parties... I had no other choice, really, but to come here. It was better than nothing, after all.

"Um, hello?" The voice drew me out of my thoughts. I stood straight and turned. It was the boy I had mentioned earlier.

"I-I'm Hunter. You must be, um, Emma, right?" Hunter asked. He seemed to be very nervous. Hunter stood a few inches lower than me (I was about sixty-five inches tall). He was Caucasian, and had expressive hazel-colored eyes and dark brown, nearly black hair that was just as windblown as mine. His skin was pale, as if he didn't go outside often. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and tan jeans along with grey sneakers, and didn't look to be very strong.

I smiled, trying to reassure him. "Yes, I'm Emma. Are you taking over a garden too?"

Hunter smiled back, the uncertainty leaving his eyes. His teeth were white. "Y-yeah. My parents bought one close to...um, to Pinata Village."

"Bought? I got my garden for free," I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? You must be getting Jardinero's old garden, then." Hunter walked over and leaned over the ship's guardrail.

"Yeah, Jardinero's garden, that's it," I said, nodding and doing the same.

"I—You haven't seen it yet, have you?" Hunter stuttered slightly and averted his gaze, staring down into the clear water below.

"No."

"Well," Hunter said, "You'll see why it was f-free soon."

"Wh—" I was interrupted by the captain.

"Pinata Island, dead ahead! If you have luggage, go get it! We will arrive in less than thirty minutes!" he shouted. I looked out to sea and, true enough, I could see Pinata Island's beach in the distance.

"See you, Emma. Good luck if your...er...I mean, good luck _with_ yourgarden," Hunter paused before pushing himself off the rail and quickly heading for the door that lead to the lower parts of the ship.

"Bye, Hunter. You too," I said. Hunter was obviously a shy boy and spoke strangely, but there was something likeable about him. I gazed back down to the water, gently pulling at the slightly tanned skin on my wrist, and let my thoughts wander again.

~~...~~

"...and you just take a left, follow the path, and you should arrive at the garden with little problem. Any questions?"

"No, sir," I said to the instructor in charge of helping new arrivals to the island who stood before me. He was wearing a grey mask with bright red squibbles on it here and there. He also was dressed in a long beige shirt with blue stripes around the hem, and similarly-colored pants. He did not wear shoes. I glanced at my own light blue sneakers, wondering how everybody could walk around without any shoes on.

"Ahem! Good. Now, follow me, please, and we'll pick out a mask for you." The instructor called me out of my thoughts. I did as he said and followed him into a small, rickety building. Lights flicked on, and I saw rows and rows of boxes. The man took down five large ones.

"These are the masks. Pick any one you like. I know it will be strange for a few days, but it's just customary, and you don't have to wear it at night. If you decide to go swimming or or stay outside when it's raining, wearing it then is _definitely _not a good idea." With that, he disappeared back out the door.  
>I opened one box. None of the masks there were very interesting, so I opened the second box and rifled through.<p>

Then, one mask caught my eye. I took it out. It was dark blue with various shades of purple highlights and markings it. I put it on. It covered all of my head except for the top back, my mouth, my ears, and my eyes. As I said, the back wasn't colored, so my short, light brown hair wasn't smushed against my head and making it itchy. Although it felt awkward wearing it, it fit fine. I could breathe, at least. I closed the box and stood up.

"Are you done yet? Oh, yes, very nice. A good pick. Now you're ready for Pinata Island, so...go to it. You have a garden to be taking care of, remember?" The man seemed in a hurry to get me out, so I quickly hurried outside and onto the dirt road.

The Village was arranged around Pinata Central neatly. There was a house here and there, but most of the residences were out in the countryside. The Village was mainly composed of shops.

I picked up the pace. The garden was in sight. But as I drew closer, I felt dismayed. The place was as dead as my old dog Lavinia. The ground was dried, sun-baked soil, and looked as hard as rock. In the places there wasn't hard soil, unruly grass sprang up. Old, broken junk was laying everywhere.

_What happened here? _I thought.

_They told me it was in ruins, but I didn't know it was going to be this bad..._

As I neared closer, I noticed a girl standing near the border of the 'garden'...if you could call it that. I could tell from this far that she had blue eyes. Her hair was dark and tied into two laid-back ponytails, tied with orange ribbons. She was wearing a green mask that covered all but her mouth, eyes, and hair, that had a yellow sun on the forehead area. The mask had one leaf on top of it sticking into the air, then six smaller leaves arranged in a circle on the mask, also sticking out. The girl was wearing a purple shirt and lavender pants, both with orange striped markings on the edge. She was also wearing green gloves, and was tanned from the sun.

The girl waved to me. I waved back and walked faster until I was face-to-face with her. Well, actually, I was looking down on her. She looked to be about my age (sixteen), perhaps a little younger, but she was a lot shorter than I was.

"Oh, hello. I'm Leafos. You must be the one who's going to take over the garden," Leafos said, smiling warmly.

"Yes. My name is Emma," I said simply, returning the smile, although mine was less friendly.

"Well, now that you're here, you can get started on fixing up this place and attracting your pinata! I have a few tools for you to help. I know it isn't much, but later, when you get more chocolate coins, you can buy some better tools from Lottie."

"Oh. What are you going to give—" I was interrupted when a strange light began to emit from Leafos' hands. After a moment, a book appeared out of thin air, flapped about like it was alive, then dropped into Leafos' waiting palms.

"...A flying book." I blinked several times, opened my mouth, and squeaked. Leafos handed me the...magical...book. She looked casual, as if she hadn't just made a book appear out of midair.

"I've given you the journal. It contains everything you need to attract pinata," Leafos explained.

I blinked again and looked down at the journal. It was orange and yellow, heavy, and had a hard cover. Before I could thank her, she started up her magic conjuring thing, and this time, a shovel appeared, which she promptly handed to me.

The shovel was very old. The head seemed as if a bite had been taken out of it by a starving animal, and the hilt was just a bunch of splinters. Tied on the hilt was a ribbon, as if its presence made the shovel less broken.

"This shovel is old, but it won't break. Oh, and one more thing. I've contacted Willy, the local builder, about building a small house for you, since sleeping outside isn't really comfortable. He said that he would do it for free, as a welcome present. He's going to be here soon, so you might want to get rid of all this hard soil," Leafos explained.

"How do I do that?" I asked. I wasn't very experienced in this field.

"Just hit the ground with your shovel really hard and it will soften up. Go on, try it."

I put the notebook down where it wouldn't get any dust on it, took the shovel with both hands, and hit the ground. Sure enough, the hard soil softened into cool dirt.

"Good! I'm going to let you try this yourself for a little while. Maybe you'll attract some pinata! Now, turn this mess into your dream garden!" Leafos exclaimed enthusiastically. With those encouraging words, she headed for her house and disappeared.

~~...~~

I sighed, took off my mask, and wiped the sweat off my brow. I thought I had known hard work before, but it had only been an hour and already I was exhausted. I put my mask back on and stretched, before continuing to smack the ground with my shovel.

Well, Leafos was right, anyway. This shovel simply refused to break. At least I had most of the garden looking like...well, a garden, again. I had already gone through and broken the useless junk with my shovel. This place was looking up.

"Here's Willy!" a booming male voice called. I stopped my work for a moment and looked up to see a tall, muscular man. I couldn't see any of his skin except for his eyes and hands, which were white. His eyes were brown. The man was dressed in a blue mask with a sledgehammer head held up on top of it. He was wearing overalls the same color as his mask, and had an orange shirt on under it. He was carrying a toolbox and supplies. Although he was much bigger than me and even kind of frightening, I quickly realized that he was friendly and good-natured.

"You must be Emma, the new girl. I'm Willy, as you probably know, the local builder. I build houses for people and pinata," Willy said.

"Pinata have houses?" I asked. I thought about pinata frogs living in a cottage and was confused.

"Yep! Now where do you want your house?"

"Oh, I don't mind. In the middle, please," I said. Willy walked over to the middle of the garden. He took a strange cube out of his toolbox, and when he set it on the ground, it rolled over, expanding, then turned into a giant box with patches on it that hid Willy inside it.

"Geez, talk about not wanting people looking over your shoulder..." I said, blinking. I turned back to my work.

By the time Willy had finished an hour or two later, all the hard soil in the garden was gone. I stretched my aching limbs, trying to get the kinks out of them. I looked at my hand. There were small blisters on them. They didn't hurt badly now, but I knew they would tonight. I went over to the journal lying on the ground and traded it for the shovel. I looked at the journal. There wasn't any dust on it, at least. I opened the book and flipped through a few old pages until I found a picture of a worm with interesting markings.

"'Whirlm'," I said out loud. What a funny, yet cute, name. "'Every garden has to start somewhere, and it's harder to keep Whirlms out than it is to keep them in. Ancient wisdom says, "Whirlms are the foundation of any successful garden." Please don't mistake them for stomach parasites. Whirlms will inhabit any garden with a soil or grass.'" So, this Leafos girl had humor. I looked around. There was plenty of soil, but no Whirlms in sight.

"Whew! That was easier than I thought it would be!" Willy exclaimed as he left the box by a door. He hit the box with a hammer he was holding and it folded up, turning back into the tiny cube it had started as. In its place was a small house. The house was made of wood and was well-constructed. It looked as if it could withstand a hurricane. It had three rooms, and I was all-in-all happy with it.

"Well? Ya like it? It has full plumbing installed and electricity on already and is furnished, so you don't need to worry about that! Heh."

"Are you kidding? I love it! Thanks so much, Willy!" I exclaimed, eyes lighting up.

"Hey, no more freebies, kid. Next time you want me to build a pinata house, you have to pay." Satisfied, Willy grinned and left the garden.

I walked over towards the house and entered it. It was not extremely spacious, but it was much better than my last home. The room I entered was a kitchen, with a small fridge, a sink, and a countertop. There was a window behind the counter where light spilled in. There was also a table with a chair. I walked over to the sink and flipped the handle with 'C' marked on it. Sure enough, water flowed out of the tap. I turned the handle again and headed into the next room. This one was a bedroom. There was a single bed here with a pillow and blue covers. Beside it was a lamp. There was a window opposite the bed. I headed through the final door. In here was the bathroom with a toilet, shower, and sink. The floor was white tile.

I walked back into the bedroom and happily threw myself onto the bed. I was struck with a thought; where did Willy get all the wood used to build the house? Or the bedsheets? The sink? How did he do the plumbing? He wasn't even carrying anything but a toolbox and a little wood, not to mention he finished in less than two hours. I decided that, as usual, it was probably best not to ask.

My thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound. I sat up straight and listened.

There it was again! It was an odd sound that reminded me of a trumpet, although it was quiet. It was followed by a squeaking sound. Curious, I got off the bed and headed out the front door.  
>I was greeted with more of the squelching noises. Looking about, I found the source. It was some sort of giant worm.<p>

_Whirlm, _I corrected myself.

The Whirlm was black and white, about the length of my foot, and by the looks of it was very happy. It was plowing through the dirt as if it were air, and did a flip upon coming out of the holes it had made, making its odd noises all the way.

I stared at the Whirlm. Was it...? I blinked rapidly. My eyes weren't deceiving me. It was changing color! After a few moments, the red and black was gone, replaced with much brighter colors, and it finally stopped bouncing around.

Now the Whirlm had the dominant color of orange. Its...end...tail, whatever, was green with a red stripe outlining the green. The middle of its body was red with angular white squiggles in the red color. Then there were some green circles on its neck, along with a red stripe closer to its head. All in all, I was rather surprised at this spontaneous color change. The Whirlm raised the upper part of its body off the ground and examined its surroundings. It turned and looked at me quizzically, cocking its head.

I gazed back at the Whirlm and was suddenly overcome with the thought that it was very cute. I didn't like worms that much—they were long and slimy and they bent into unnatural shapes. This 'worm' was a pinata, though, and it looked fluffy, all paper mache, wasn't all that long, and was flexible but did not bend into anything too creepy. I started towards the Whirlm, clucking my tongue lightly. The Whirlm squeaked lightly in response. I held out my hand, thinking to myself that I must look ridiculous, treating a worm as if it were a puppy, but I continued anyway. Finally, I squatted down and gently began to stroke the Whirlm's head.

"Wow! You've attracted your first pinata already!" The Whirlm jumped, made a trumpet noise, and swiftly rolled away from me in the manner of a detached wheel.

I stood and turned to face Leafos, who was grinning sheepishly. "Sorry. Whirlms are skittish, you know. Anyway, I have a few more things for you. First..." she handed me a flashlight that she had been holding, "here. It can get really dark here at night." She conjured up two things next; a yellow packet and a rusty watering can, and promptly handed those to me. "That is a grass packet. It will _never _run out of seeds. Just pour it on the ground and lush grass will spring up. It's easy. Also, I figured you would need a watering can, considering this is a garden and all. Oh, yes, and to go with that, take this seed. It will grow a turnip. You can eat it, or you could sell it to Lottie for a few coins. I recommend eating it. Turnips are really good!" I accepted the fat, purple seed.

"Thanks, Leafos. Without you helping me, I would be a mess. I just hope I'm not being a problem," I said with a light chuckle, balancing the items I had received in my arms.

"Of course you're not a problem! I'm going to do everything I can to help you become a successful gardener. Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing before I went to bed. Goodnight, Emma, and good luck!" Leafos said cheerily, heading back to her house.

"Night, Leafos." I sighed. Alone again.

Well, except for the Whirlm of course. I glanced over at it. It had curled up into a tight ball and was asleep. I glanced at the sky that was already dark and decided I should follow the Whirlm's example. With a yawn, I headed for my house. I had had a long day, and it was time for sleep.


	2. A New Day

"Now, what should I name you, little guy? Whirly, Twirly, Swirly? How about Roly-poly?" I laughed and gently scratched the Whirlm's head. It squeaked and gazed up at me. "I'm just kidding. How about... Benjamin? I always liked that name. How about it, Ben?"

The Whirlm squeaked and rolled off, trumpeting and doing his joyful plow-through-the-dirt move.

"Benjamin it is." I picked up Leafos' notebook, flipped to the Whirlm page, and wrote his name down in the name table.

I thought to myself how silly that must look. I was talking to a pinata, for pity's sake. But, hey, they were alive too.

"Alright... time to get planting," I said. I reached for the watering can without looking. When I grabbed it, I accidentally knocked it over. All of the water poured out, but thankfully the can didn't hit Benjamin, who was sitting nearby.

"Darn it!" I exclaimed. With a sigh, I stood up and began to head for the pump to refill the watering can.

When I got back, I found Benjamin wriggling around and plowing through the dirt. I wondered to myself what had set him off this time, and that's when I realized... the water had spilled onto him. I walked over to Ben when he stopped dancing around and sprinkled a little water on him. Sure enough, he began wriggling and plowing again.

"So you like water, huh, Benny?" I asked with a laugh. I walked over to the hole he had made in the ground, scraped at it so it was a bit bigger, and planted the turnip seed inside. "Thank you very much, my kind assistant," I said cordially, watering the plant. A moment later, a sprout sprung out of the ground. That was fast.

"Hello. I'm Seedos." I jumped when the voice hit my ears and turned around to see someone standing behind me.

"Oh, you scared me." I laughed nervously. "I'm Emma. I just arrived here yesterday."

"Leafos told me about you. It's nice to meet you. Here, take a seed. And don't hit me with your spade."

I blinked a few times, then chuckled. "You're kidding, right?"

Seedos shook his head. "Sometimes the other gardeners will hit me so seeds will fall out of my pack."

"That's horrible!" I exclaimed. I wouldn't want to be hit with a shovel and be mugged in the process.

"Oh, don't worry. I pay them back later." Seedos winked, took a seed out of his pack, and handed it to me. It was a small seed that was a pretty yellow color.

"Thanks, Seedos." I smiled.

I took a closer look at Seedos as he turned away to inspect my turnip. Seedos' mask was a tan-like color. His teeth almost seemed to be magnified through the mouth hole, which led me to believe they were just a part of the mask. Orange and red striped glasses covered his eyes, and the glass was so thick I could hardly tell what his eye color was. There were orange autumn leaves attached to the top and very bottom of the mask, and a giant green seed was held up on the top of it.

Onto his clothes, he was dressed in a yellow t-shirt and shorts. The shirt had a blue egg design sown into it. Like most of the other islanders, he was barefoot. He was wearing a green backpack accented by purple markings, and a much smaller red pouch was slung on his side.

In all honesty, Seedos wasn't the most handsome person I had ever seen (although, then again, he _was _wearing a mask), but there was something charming about him. He seemed to be a pretty interesting person.

"Keep an eye on your turnip, Emma. It's going to need water soon," Seedos said, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Already? But it's only been three minutes. I thought turnips only needed to be watered every few days," I replied.

"No, no! Plants on Pinata Island have accelerated growth speed. This turnip should be done growing in a few minutes," Seedos explained. "You can probably attract a Mousemallow with this."

"A-a what kind of marshmallow?" I wondered, picking up my watering can and watering the fast-growing turnip.

"A Mousemallow. They're a type of pinata."

"Oh. That's..." Before I could say what that was, the leafy plant began to move rapidly in and partly out of the ground. It looked like it was jumping! "Whoa! Is that supposed to happen?"

"That means the turnip is finished growing," Seedos said.

The turnip shot out of the ground like a bullet, flying high into the air, and landed on the ground with a thump. I blinked, bent over, and picked it up. It looked like a normal turnip, but normal turnips do not randomly fly out of the ground!

"Good job!" Seedos praised. "You should probably plant that other seed I gave you now. I'm going to hunt for seeds. Good luck." With that, Seedos headed for the border of the garden and disappeared into the distance.

_I'll just put this turnip in the fridge then plant this seed, _I thought to myself, heading for my house. A few moments later, I reemerged.

"Benjamin! You can come out now!" I called. Unsurprisingly, I didn't get an answer. I headed around to the other side of my house.

Well, there was Benjamin, but he had a friend. There was another Whirlm there! The new resident had apparently joined while I was occupied talking to Seedos.

"Ben, you should have told me we had a guest!" I exclaimed good-naturedly. I walked over to the new Whirlm and sat down. "Hey, little guy. What do you want to be called?"

The Whirlm squeaked and looked up at me.

"How about... Annie! Isn't that a pretty name? I always liked the name Annie," I said. Annie trumpeted happily and rolled in a circle. I laughed. Whirlms were so silly. "Alright, Annie. You and Benjamin go amuse yourselves. I've got a seed to plant."

I spent the next few minutes wondering where I ought to plant this seed. I figured it would be a flower—I couldn't think of any fruit or vegetable that was yellow. Except for maybe bananas, squashes, and corn, but I figured this seed wouldn't grow that.

I finally opted for in front of my house. I dug a small hole beside the door with my hands and planted the seed inside. I next retrieved the watering can I had left near the spot I had planted the turnip in and watered it.

As I was waiting for the plant to grow, I flipped open the journal to the Whirlms page, took out my journal, and wrote Annie's name below Benjamin's. Next, I flipped to the first page of the pinata encyclopedia.

"Arocknid," I read aloud. "If Cluckles had this many legs, people would shout "Hooray!" and fire up the barbecue. However, an Arocknid's legs seem to make people cautiously reach for a rolled-up newspaper." I examined the drawing of the Arocknid. A giant spider? No thank you. I didn't care if it was a pinata... I was terrified of spiders!

After watering the plant, I flipped to a random page. The next few minutes were spent reading about Venus Pinata Traps. By the time I was done, my seed had finished growing.

Apparently, it was a buttercup. Its soft, dainty leaves fluttered in the slight breeze and seemed to liven up the garden a bit.

_Speaking of livening up the garden, _I thought, _I should probably use that grass packet Leafos gave me._

I headed into my house and picked up the grass seed packet I had set on the table. I opened the packet and gazed inside of it. Tiny, nearly miniscule grass seeds were inside.

I walked over to the white borderline that separated my garden from the rest of the island and poured the packet over it. Lush green grass sprung up immediately. I stepped backwards and began to grow grass on the border of the garden. You could still see the white paint, through it, but at least that ugly, obvious borderline was mostly hidden.

Oddly, the seeds went right through my Whirlms, although I tried not to plant the grass over them. It seemed to irritate the poor things.

After about fifteen minutes of planting grass and filling in the small areas of dirt I missed, I was done. I took off my shoes, set them by my house, and walked through the grass. It was so _soft! _I laughed and sat down as Benjamin and Annie made their way over to me.

I allowed myself to fall backwards into the grass and gave a sigh of contentment. This place was just so amazing. I felt happier than I had in years, and I had only been here a day! With the sun beating on my face and wrapping me in a blanket of warmth, I allowed myself to drift off into sleep.


	3. Emma Learns About Romancing

"Choo choo choo!"

"Ugh, no, Dad, don't go away..."

"Choo choo choo _choo!"_

"No, not the train... Don't go..."

"Choo!"

"Unh?" Drowsily, I raised my head, which collided right into something scratchy. My eyes snapped open and I found myself face-to-face with a purple thing, and it was _alive._

Taken off-guard, I screamed and scrambled backwards. The creature squeaked loudly and jumped off me. It raced away, behind the house. Still scared, I grabbed the journal and flipped through the pages.

"Oh," I said. "Oh." It was a Mousemallow. But if Mousemallows ate turnips...

I stood up and walked over to the front of my house. The door was open just a crack. Pushing on it, I walked inside. The refrigerator door was ajar and the turnip I had placed inside it was missing.

"You little rascal!" I exclaimed, half-astonished and half-amused. The Mousemallow, who had been peeking his head around the corner, disappeared.

Closing the door carefully behind me, I walked around the house's corner and scooped up the Mousemallow before he could run.

"That will be your name," I said to the struggling pinata. "Rascal."

Rascal immediately relaxed and looked up at me. "Choo?" he squeaked.

I smiled. "Poor thing."

Rascal looked helpless. The mouse pinata was lavender with darker purple highlights. A band ran across his face and his large ears made him look smaller than he already was. In a strange way, though, he was adorable.

With a squeal, Rascal wriggled out from my grasp. Wondering what set him off, I looked around, only to see a snake pinata slithering along the ground. I remembered the old pet shop back at home... they fed mice to the snakes. Gasping and realizing what this meant, I ran off after Rascal.

I saw him, cornered against the house. A snake was rearing up on its tail, hissing loudly. My blood ran cold and I raced forward, picked up the snake—I thank my lucky stars that it wasn't slimy or cold!—and hurled it away. The snake rolled onto its stomach and, casting a debilitating look in my direction, quickly slithered out of the garden.

I picked up the shaking Rascal and stroked one of his large ears. Mesmerized, he slumped against my shoulder. I sighed, walked over to my house, and placed him inside. He was sleeping before I set him down.

I closed the door and fell to the ground. Benjamin came over. I petted him absentmindedly.

"Hey, are you alright?" Leafos' voice roused me from my thoughts.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "Why?"

"I saw that whole ordeal from the house. You seem to be very protective over your pinatas," Leafos said soberly. She brightened up almost immediately and said, "But that's a a good thing! Not all gardeners care for their pinatas so much."

I made a sound that was half a chuckle and half a snort. "Well, what were those things?"

"Syrupents. As you may be able to tell, they eat Mousemallows."

"How do I get rid of them?" I asked. "Or just keep them from eating Rascal—my Mousemallow, I mean?"

"Well, you can't get rid of them completely, but there are a few ways," Leafos said. "You'll need some chocolate coins, but you can buy a Mousemallow house from Willy. Then you could attract another, romance them, and—"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted. "What am I doing with them?"

"Oh, right, I forgot that you're new to the island." Leafos chuckled. "My bad. Romancing is... well, maybe it's better if I show you!"

"Show me?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Okay, here's what you have to do. First you need a Whirlm house. Do you have fifty-five coins to spare?"

"Yeah, I think so," I replied.

"You need to build your pinatas houses anyway, so this is a good excuse. I'll alert Willy. Just a sec'..." Leafos pulled a strange device out of her pocket.

The device was square on the bottom but semi-circle on the top, all coloured black. The screen glowed and played a short but merry tune. I couldn't see what Leafos was doing, but she was rubbing her thumb on the screen, rather like it was one of those touch-screen phones.

"Willy," Leafos said, holding the phone-like device in front of her and speaking into it. "We need you at Emma's garden to build a Whirlm house. Yes, we have the pay, before you ask. Hurry, it's important." There was a short pause and a chiming sound could be heard.

"I'm on my way," Willy's voice said through the alert system. "I just gotta grab some supplies and a bacon sandwich, heh."

"What is that, some sort of cellphone?" I asked.

"Huh? No, no, it's an alert system. After you make some more money, I'll take you to Lottie's store and help you pick one. They're pretty cheap, but they're essential for a gardener."

So, Leafos and I lounged around for a while. I pointed out to Willy where I wanted the house (in the corner-area) and then we lounged about some more. Leafos filled me in on all of the residents of the town.

"So I said I saw a Syrupent with two heads, and Petula said she saw one with _four._ She always has to be one bet—"

"I'm finished! The house has been built!" Willy cut Leafos off, bursting out of the usual patched box that allowed nobody to see inside. He turned around and slammed the box with his hammer like when he had built my house.

I was truly intrigued at what I saw. Honestly, I wasn't sure what the house would look like. _Would they live in a cabin? _I thought. _A mansion, even? But why don't I just move in with them, then? _Seeing the house nearly made me laugh aloud.

The 'house' looked more like a wooden yellow tube. Like one of those crazy plastic hamster cage tubes, it ran horizontal to the ground, went up into the air, came back down a bit later, and finally went into the ground.

It seemed to be recycled from some sort of giant sink... you could even see a water-pressure wheel on top of one part of the wooden pipe. There was a single piece of tube sticking up out of the ground, and on the raised part was some sort of barometer. Its pointer only moved slightly back and forth.

Arrows were etched into the wood, and little stones surrounded the house. Beside it all a post was stuck into the ground, and it had a picture of a Whirlm on it. It was all just so... so... whimsical.

I quickly headed into the house, counted the coins, and handed fifty-five to Willy. After thanking him and seeing him out of the garden, Leafos spoke up.

"Alright, now we can start!" she said. "Go get your Whirlms. Just pick them up and put them together, and watch!" But you might want to put them away from the house."

"Uh, okay..." I said, confused. A few minutes later, I returned with the wriggling, squeaking Ben and Annie. They sounded just like those old dolls you could squeeze.

Walking over to a more open area, I set the Whirlms down, facing each other, and backed up. I glanced at Leafos, but she was staring at the Whirlms with a strange, glazed-over in her eyes. Like she was recalling a memory, almost...

When I turned back towards the Whirlms, I blinked in surprise. They certainly looked happy. They were both 'standing' on the back part of their bodies and whirling their heads in circles. In fact, it looked kind of silly, but incredibly cute. But then I spotted something sticking up out of the ground. It was... sizzling?

"Hey, Leafos, what's—"

"Whoa! Back up!" Leafos grabbed me with a gloved hand and pulled me back. Moments later, large red bombs sprung out from the ground! Shrieking, I jumped back.

"Calm down, your pinatas need you to guide them through the maze!" Leafos exclaimed.

"What? Maze? Guide?" I asked frantically, eyeing the bombs.

"Okay, here's the rundown. You need to navigate your pinata to the other pinata. Use your voice and hand signals, and don't let them run into the loathers."

"Loathers?"

"I'll explain later. Hurry, you've only got twenty seconds left!"

"Until what?"

"Until the loathers explode!"

"WHAT? !" I screeched.

"Hurry!" Leafos shoved me and I stumbled, luckily managing to catch myself before I tripped.

_19, 18, 17..._

"Uh... uh... Benny, come here, Ben," I said, moving my arms towards my body. I was standing behind the waiting Annie. Ben began to crawl forward, looking at me.

_He trusts me, _I realized. I couldn't let him down.

_16, 15, 14..._

I saw that Benjamin was approaching a loather. They formed a somewhat s-shaped wall that resembled a worm.

"Uh, turn right." I waved my hand right. Ben did.

_13, 12, 11..._

I noticed the crinkly, silvery tinfoil covering a chocolate coin, the local currency, as Leafos has informed me. I'd been keeping the coins I had found in the fridge, and I will admit that I couldn't resist eating one of the bronze ones as a midnight snack.

Ben brushed against the coin. Only then did I realize it had been partly transparent before. So... now it was real? But how was it not before?

_10, 9, 8..._

"Alright, turn up!" I exclaimed. Ben, under my instruction, had gone after two more bronze coins. This sucked away some time, but I knew he could make it.

_7, 6, 5..._

Ben, with Annie in sight, rushed forward as fast as he could push himself. I could hear the bombs begin to make a loud ticking noise; surely that meant they were about to go off. Closer, closer, Ben drew until...

_4, 3, 2..._

I could almost hear a fanfare play as Ben plowed through the dirt, trumpeting and squeaking all the way. Annie did her little dance like she and Ben had been doing a few minutes ago. The loathers sunk into the ground, along with the coins that had been left untouched, but one silver and two bronze chocolate coins were on the ground.

Annie and Ben, crawling in sync, immediately began to head towards their house. My heart was still pounding, and I was excited, although I was also just so confused.

"What just happened?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief.

"That was the romancing minigame," Leafos said with excitement in her voice.

"You call nearly blowing up my garden a game?" I asked, staring at Leafos as if she had grown two heads, like that Syrupent she was talking about earlier.

"Ah, don't worry, the loathers are small. The worst they would do is make a small hole or burn some grass. They're not even deadly to small species. Speaking of them, loathers were made to keep pinatas from being happy. A long time ago, pinatas would just romance and be done with it. But now you have to go through the maze. The creator of the loathers are Prof—" Before Leafos could continue, she was again interrupted by something, but this time it was music. "Never mind. Come on, you've got to see this!"

Leafos ran over to the Whirlm house, where Ben and Annie had disappeared to. She sat down on her knees by the tube that ran into the ground and motioned for me to come over. I crouched down beside her. Leafos showed me a little piece you could raise to look down, so I did.

And I nearly burst into laughter. Ben and Annie were _dancing, _or so it seemed. They were sliding around, literally doing the worm, along with other crazy dance moves. I closed the wooden flap when they stopped and sat back, allowing my laughter to burst out.

"Wh—" I suppressed a laugh. "Why are they doing that?"

"That's how they—"

"YOUR PINATAS HAVE MADE AN EGG!" Both Leafos and I jumped and looked up, only to see somebody... what? She was flying!

"—do that," Leafos finished. "That's my sister, Storkos. She delivers eggs to all the gardens on the islands."

I couldn't get a good look at the girl in front of me, but I managed to make out wild brown hair matching Leafos' shade and a blue-and-yellow outfit, as well as a stem branching up from the person's head, supporting a matching yellow egg on it. She was also holding something...

"That's right!" Storkos exclaimed. "I have an egg for you now." She swooped down and set the aforementioned egg inside of the aforementioned tube that jutted out of the ground. The egg looked... well, like a Whirlm; same colours, but in circular form.

"And another successful mission for Storkos, the people's champion! I'd stay and chat, but—" An alert system chimed and Storkos whipped it out. "Sahari's Camellos just romanced." With that, Storkos took off towards the nearby mountain.

I blinked several times. I opened my mouth and then closed it again. Finally, I said, "...What."

Leafos began to laugh. Ben glanced at her, but fixated his gaze on the egg again.

"No, seriously. What in the world just happened?" I shook my head again. "I mean... random bombs and mazes, dancing pinatas, flying people, and... who's Sahari? What's a Camello? What, just... just, what." I laughed weakly.

"That's Pinata Island for you." Leafos winked. "But to answer your question, a Camello is a Pinata. A woman named Sahari, who lives in the Dessert Desert, raises them."

"Why'd you say it twice?"

"Huh?"

"Desert desert?"

"No, silly! Dess_ert_ Desert. Never mind; it's just an area near the village. I'll show you later. Maybe we'll even see a Pieena!" An excited glint appeared in Leafos' eyes. "Dad had a Pieena once. It was _sooo_ cool! But anyway, we better get started on making your label before this egg hatches!"

"What's a label?" I inquired.

Leafos gently picked up Annie and showed me her side. I saw a little white piece of paper jutting out of her middle.

"It's basically a way to show other owners, in case your pinata gets lost, that this pinata belongs to you. It can't be applied to adult pinata tamed from the wild, unfortunately, but you can put it on any baby pinata you hatch," Leafos said. "Stay here! I'll go get some supplies."

So while Leafos ran off to her house, I leaned back and watched the egg as it shook slightly. Benjamin and Annie were both staring intently at it.

"May I?" I inquired, reaching my hand out towards the egg. Ben and Annie both squeaked gently, so I picked it up and set it on the ground beside them. My hand lingered on the top, where the little pieces of green paper were coarsest. I gently, affectionately rubbed the egg, before retracting my hand. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself at the fact that the egg was bigger than they were.

Ben crawled closer to the egg and wound himself around it. Annie did the same, but on the opposite side. They closed their eyes nearly at the same time and their breathing evened out as they drifted off to sleep.

"Aww..." I whispered, high-pitched. They were just so adorable... my Benny and Annie were parents...

Just then, Leafos came pounding down the path leading from her house to the garden. She slowed to a walk when she saw Ben and Annie.

"I have everything you need," Leafos whispered, holding up some paper and coloured pencils. "I'm so glad I still have my art supplies from when I was a child. I still sketch, but I don't usually colour. Here." Leafos sat down opposite to me. I took the paper, pencils, and binder to lay the paper flat on.

"Alright, so where do I start? What kind of picture do I draw?" I asked.

"Use a pencil and trace lightly. First, draw a border, any sort of border. Then, inside the border, draw a design. It can be anything you want; it could be a picture of you, the sun, a Whirlm..."

"Alright." Picking up the pencil, I began tracing the border. Copying the triangulated designs I saw on islanders' clothes, I made sharp lines and edges.

I paused when I was done. What should I draw for the picture? I thought of things I liked... Apples, but those were a bit boring. I liked elephants too; the massive creatures always fascinated me, but they were too hard to draw. That's when something popped into my head, something that would be easy to draw and not so boring.

I began to gently sketch, taking careful note of every painstaking detail. When I was done, a dog looked back at me. My dog, specifically Lavinia.

I had loved that dog with every fiber of my being. She was a Lab, complete with long ears, a sweet face, and a muscular body. Forever a puppy, Lavinia had an insatiable desire to never stop moving. When she finally collapsed, exhausted, beside me once night hit, she was such a snuggler. But now she was gone.

Despite having to draw from a long-dead memory, the little picture looked a lot like her. I had drawn the textures of her fur already and she was gazing southwest, slightly facing me.

Next was the colouring. I started with the picture of Lavinia, shading in her brown fur. Her coal-coloured nose was next, and I switched back to brown to fill in her eyes. The picture only went down to her shoulders, so I didn't have anything more to draw.

Next came the background. I chose a simple, solid blue, like the sky behind her. The border I filled in with purple and a lighter shade of blue. And then I was done.

"That's really good!" Leafos exclaimed.

"Oh, it's alright..." I said modestly. I wasn't a good drawer and I knew it, but I did like my label.

"Alright, the next step is to print out some copies of this in a small enough size to fit your pinata, make a normal-sized copy for you, then send this off to Langston," Leafos said, gathering up all the supplies. I helped her.

"Who's Langston?" I asked.

"He runs Pinata Central, the city you arrived in. He has to keep everything in order. He'll send the label to Pinata Lost and Found, and if you ever lose a pinata, they'll send out an alert to everybody nearby with a picture of your label and the details," Leafos explained.

"Oh, good. I was wondering what would happen if one of my pinatas got lost." I laughed nervously, trying to avoid thinking about my poor Whirlms out there, alone... "You need any help carrying this in?" I asked quickly.

"Nah, no thanks," Leafos said, taking the art supplies from me. "It's nearly sundown anyway, so I better get back home before Dad has a fit." Leafos snorted with amusement. "I'm nearly seventeen, and he _still _wants me home before dark, despite the fact that I'm right outside the window. Bye, Emma."

"Seeya, Leafos," I said. "Thanks again for the help!"

"No problem!" Leafos called over her shoulder as she ran for her house.

Sighing, I plopped down on the ground. _What _a day. I had attracted a Mousemallow—who ate my dinner, by the way!—built a Whirlm house, nearly turned my garden into a bomb crater, and now I would have a new Whirlm to take care of soon! And it wasn't even time for bed yet.

"Snap, forgot to ask Leafos how long it would take for this egg to hatch!" I said to myself. Oh well. I could wait a few hours, after all. How long could it take?


End file.
